A majority of students showed once again that they don't care who leads the Undergraduate Student Government, as this year's USG election voter turnout was the lowest in three years.

The voter turnout for this year was 4,953 -- 836 fewer than last year and 1,573 fewer than 1992.

"It's still an enigma to us," said Scott Payne, head elections commissioner and Association of Residence Hall Students president. "If (students) don't believe in USG, it's hard to get them to vote."

USG Presidential Candidate Erich May blamed the low voter turnout on a boring campaign and increased student apathy. Previous USG presidents Rob Kampia and Chris Saunders' campaigns were more interesting, May said.

"This year USG wasn't all that controversial and neither were the candidates," May said. The candidates all had the same platform and were all saying the same thing, he said.

"There was a pretty boring USG this year," he said.

But May also said the problem goes much deeper. University students have too much comfort and luxury, he said, adding that no one thinks about needs anymore -- just wants.

"Everyone in this country has everything they need already," May said. "If you told a fraternity you would put a swimming pool in their backyard, they wouldn't care."

Some candidates were shocked that the turnout was low because early results seemed to indicate a high turnout. Payne announced that the voter turnout reached a "recent high at Penn State" around 11 p.m. Wednesday night. The premature announcement was later found to be false.

"I found it very disappointing," said Pat Scanlan, candidate for USG vice president.

Payne was also surprised by the low voter turnout because of the seemingly large amount of voters at the polls.

"It was very, very odd," he said. "We felt it would be high."

Candidates had different feelings about what could be done to increase voter turnout next year. May said if the elections code permitted more campaigning freedom, they could have a bigger turnout.

"If it was more liberal we could get more attention from students," he said.

Scanlan thought the problem lay in advertising. The election commission needs to do more advertising on campus and for the debates, he said. The debates end up being a show for the candidates' fan clubs and the reporters from The Daily Collegian that show up, Scanlan said.

"Maybe we could have spoken to more groups -- but there's only so much time in one day," he added.

Payne blamed the low results on the commission's lack of funding. The commission tried to publicize the election, but can only do so much, he said.

"It depends a lot on people's perception of USG and how important it is for them to vote," Payne said.

Despite the elections commission's attempt to advertise the elections, some University students still feel left in the dark.

USG Vice Presidential Candidate Joy Brown thought the low voter turnout was due to uninformed students.

"They don't know what USG is about," she said. "It's not important for them to vote."

Chris Nobes (freshman-biology) and Cynthia Villalta (freshman-biochemistry) said they didn't know enough about the platforms to feel qualified to vote.

"I didn't know anything about the candidates," Nobes said. "I'm not really sure what they do."

But USG President-elect Mike King looked at the voter turnout in comparative terms -- although Penn State's total is low, it is still the highest in the Big Ten.

"Other universities ask me how we're doing so well," he said.

But other University students had other reasons and just couldn't get around to casting their USG ballots.

"Laziness," said Margaret Suso (senior-food science).

Collegian Staff Writer Kathy Swingler contributed to this report.